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Deviled Eggs

My family has been making deviled eggs for almost every picnic and family party since I was a child. We’ve made them on the trunk of our car before, tried to transport them made, and made them at home and stuffed them at our destination. My family also tends to make our deviled eggs more liquidy than others do.

  • Hard boil the half the number of deviled eggs you want. I used 3 for this recipe. (Boil water, and once boiling lower eggs into water using a spoon and set a timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, immediately submerge in cold water, and refresh with more cold water if it begins to warm for about 10 minute.)
  • Peel 3 eggs and rinse under cold water to remove excess shell/shell fragments. Place eggs on plate and cut the eggs in half with a butter knife. Cut from top to bottom of egg slowly to not damage the egg white.
  • Once cut in half, grab another bowl, and place egg yolks into the bowl. The easiest way to do this is to invert the egg half over the bowl, and gently pull back on the egg whites around the edge of the yolk. If it’s really stuck, you can also lightly tap the back side of the egg while holding back the yolk till it falls out.
  • Mash up the yolks with a fork. Add 1 tsp of mustard powder, 1 1/2 Tbsp of yellow mustard, and 1 cup of mayo or equivalent. Mix and adjust to your taste.
  • Using 2 spoons or a piping bag, fill the egg halfs. Reserve extra filling to add to potato salad, make a sandwich, smear over ham, or enjoy on it’s own as a snack.
  • Finish the deviled eggs by gently taping some paprika over top. Refrigerate covered or serve right away.

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Scrambled Eggs, Cheese and Salsa

Scrambled eggs and salsa is always one of my favorite breakfasts. If I ever have any left over salsa from tacos or fajitas, you can guarantee that I will be making scrambled eggs. I also like to put ham in my eggs, however since I made this only a few days before Christmas, I didn’t have any ham on hand. I’ve also used taco meat in the eggs before, and if I do add them, I add them at the same time I add the first amount of cheese. I used white extra sharp cheddar and whole milk however you can use anything you want!

  • In a large bowl, crack 4 eggs and add 2/3 cup of milk. Whisk until homogeneous.
  • Heat pan to medium heat, and melt 1/2 a tbsp of butter.
  • Once the butter begins to brown, add your egg mixture and begin sprinkling shredded cheese (1/4 cup) evenly over the eggs. Since the eggs are still liquidy, the cheese should sink into the eggs.
  • At this point, you can just scramble the eggs; Stirring and flipping until all areas of raw egg are gone.
  • Remove from heat and add another 1/2 cup of shredded cheese evenly over the top. Let the eggs rest for one minute, then serve with a side of salsa.
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The Bayberry Candle, A Christmas Tradition

One of the most prevalent traditions every Christmas was the burning of a bayberry candle. Every year we would light our taper at about 5 pm on Christmas eve, and it would burn until it extinguished at about 3 am on Christmas morning. Though it seems weird, but our tradition was that it needed to burn into the next day, and that it needed to burn completely. By lighting the candle at 5 pm, it was usually well burnt down by the time we were going to bed, at about 10-11 pm. If the candle wasn’t burnt enough, or the candle wasn’t firm in the holder, we would simply place the candle in our empty sink for the night.

Origin & Old Saying

The story I have seen from several websites was that bayberry candles were made by the colonists for a special occasion, because their normal candles had a foul odor as they rot, and it took many bayberries, 15 lbs, to make one candle (2019; Bowen, 2016; SallyeAnder, 2017). Now, Bayberry candles are burnt as a tradition for luck and blessing for the coming year, and bayberry candles are burnt either Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve ( 2019; Bayberry Candles:Beeman-candles, n.d.; Bowen, 2016; SallyeAnder, 2017).

There are also a few versions of the old saying including:

  • “This bayberry candle comes from a friend for on Christmas eve I do send.For a bayberry candle burned to the socket, will bring joy to the heart and gold to the pocket.” (2019)
  • “A Bayberry candle burned to the socket brings food to the larder and gold to the pocket.” (Bayberry Candles:Beeman-candles, n.d.)
  • “This Bayberry candle comes from a friend, so on Christmas Eve burn it down to the end – for a Bayberry candle burned to the socket will bring joy to the heart and gold to the pocket.” (Bowen, 2016)
  • “For a bayberry candle burned to the socket brings joy to the heart and gold to the pocket.” (SallyeAnder, 2017)

(2019, October 16). Retrieved from http://www.alleghenycandles.com/bayberry_candles.html.
BAYBERRY CANDLES: beeman-candles. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.shopbeemancandles.com/bayberry-candles.
Bowen, E. (2016, October 11). The Bayberry Candle Christmas Tradition. Retrieved from https://colonialcandle.com/blogs/news/bayberry-candle-christmas-tradition.
SallyeAnder. (2017, January 26). Bayberry Candles: An American Tradition. Retrieved from https://sallyeander.com/bayberry-candles-an-american-tradition/.

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Christmas Holiday Ham

I am a Ham Lover. We’ve had just about every type of ham you can get, and they always turn out well if they are cooked enough with a good glaze. When I was growing up, we always got a 5 lb canned ham. But over the years, even the price of canned ham has risen, which has led us to try spiral cut hams, pre-cooked & sliced hams without the bone, ham steaks, and we’ve even done a roast for Christmas! Ham is the tradition, and I personally never miss out on a holiday where I can have a nice ham.

I do like spiral cut hams, but it’s very important to cook them “low and slow” because you want the internal temp to come high enough to melt the internal fat. It is also important to remove it from the glaze once it’s finished cooking, because the fat will re-solidify and ruin your remaining ham if you don’t remove it from the fat and bone after you finish eating. Some people don’t like canned hams because they seem fake or overly processed, and though that is a good concern and it doesn’t look like real ham anymore, it also has less fat and tends to be an easier eat if you have bad teeth or want a meal that requires less chewing. Processed ham steaks are definitely less food than the other types. They also tend to be a mix in textures being mostly ham-like with it having pieces that seem less processed than canned hams. Each type of ham has a draw back to different people, however most of the problems arise in how the meat is prepped and cooked.

Though it seems old fashioned, I always go with the honey and brown sugar glaze even for my non-holiday hams. I find the sweetness to go so well with the savory aspect of the ham. But, for Christmas, we also top our ham with pineapple and cherries, so when we make up the glaze we also add a bit of acidity by adding some pineapple juice to the honey brown sugar. The acidity does really well to compliment the saltiness of ham. When we make our glaze, we usually do 1:2 Honey to brown sugar. When we make our Christmas ham, we usually go for 60% brown sugar, 30% honey, 2% cherry juice and 8% pineapple juice. You are looking for a consistency where the glaze is mostly solid and won’t run completely off the ham. If it is too liquidy, add more brown sugar and honey, and stir well.

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Easy Tuna Noodle

Tuna noodle casserole is a staple of depression era cooking. It’s a simple dish that requires very little to feed many people for the night. Though I’m sure there are fancier ways to make tuna noodle, this is the way I grew up with and the way my mom grew up with too. This recipe makes enough to serve 3 adults, but the recipe can easily be stretched by adding more noodles, or doubling/tripling the existing recipe. You can also then stick it in a casserole dish once mixed and add a crisp topping and bake, however I’ve always had it without, and I tend to prefer it quick and easy. Since I don’t do the casserole step, I tend to just call it tuna noodle, since I don’t make it into a casserole.

  • Bring a pot of water to a boil
  • Add 1/2 a bag (8oz) of egg noodles and cook to al dente, and strain.
  • In a dutch oven add one strained can of tuna, one can of cream of mushroom soup, and one can of Milk. Bring to a boil and stir till smooth.
  • Once smooth, add the noodles and cook for 3-5 minutes, and serve. Sauce thickens upon standing. Best serves with buttered bread and sweet peas.

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